How many members of the house of representatives are there

How Many Members Are in the House of Representatives?

Win McNamee / Getty Images Staff

There are 435 members of the House of Representatives.   Federal law, passed on Aug. 8, 1911, determines how many members are in the House of Representatives. That measure raised the number of representatives to 435 from 391 because of population growth in the United States. 

The first House of Representatives in 1789 had only 65 members.   The number of seats in the House was expanded to 105 members after the 1790 Census,   and then to 142 members after the 1800 headcount.   The law that set the current number of seats at 435 took effect in 1913. But it isn’t the reason the number of representatives has been stuck there.

Why There Are 435 Members

There’s really nothing special about that number. Congress regularly increased the number of seats in the House based on the nation’s population growth from 1790 to 1913, and 435 is the most recent count. The number of seats in the House has not been increased in more than a century, though, even though every 10 years the census shows the population of the United States grows.

Why the Number of House Members Hasn’t Changed Since 1913

There are still 435 members of the House of Representatives a century later because of the Permanent Apportionment Act of 1929, which set that number in stone.

The Permanent Apportionment Act of 1929 was the result of a battle between rural and urban areas of the United States following the 1920 Census. The formula for distributing seats in the House based on population favored «urbanized states» and penalized smaller rural states at the time, and Congress could not agree on a reapportionment plan.

«After the 1910 census, when the House grew from 391 members to 433 (two more were added later when Arizona and New Mexico became states), the growth stopped. That’s because the 1920 census indicated that the majority of Americans were concentrating in cities, and nativists, worried about of the power of ‘foreigners,’ blocked efforts to give them more representatives,» wrote Dalton Conley, a professor of sociology, medicine and public policy at New York University, and Jacqueline Stevens, a professor of political science at Northwestern University.

So, instead, Congress passed the Permanent Apportionment Act of 1929 and sealed the number of House members at the level established after the 1910 census, 435.

Number of House Members Per State

Unlike the U.S. Senate, which consists of two members from each state, the geographic makeup of the House is determined by the population of each state. The only stipulation spelled out in the U.S. Constitution comes in Article I, Section 2, which guarantees each state, territory or district at least one representative.

The Constitution also states that there can be no more than one representative in the House for every 30,000 citizens. 

The number of representatives each state gets in the House of Representatives is based on population. That process, known as reapportionment, occurs every 10 years after the decennial population count conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau.

U.S. Rep. William B. Bankhead of Alabama, an opponent of the legislation, called the Permanent Apportionment Act of 1929 «an abdication and surrender of vital fundamental powers.» One of the functions of Congress, which created the census, was to adjust the number of seats in Congress to reflect the number of people living in the United States, he said.

Arguments for Expanding the Number of House Members

Advocates for increasing the number of seats in the House say such a move would increase the quality of representation by reducing the number of constituents each lawmaker represents. Each House member now represents about 710,000 people. 

The group ThirtyThousand.org argues that the framers of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights never intended for the population of each congressional district to exceed 50,000 or 60,000. «The principle of proportionally equitable representation has been abandoned,» the group argues.

Another argument for increasing the size of the House is that is would diminish the influence of lobbyists. That line of reasoning assumes that lawmakers would be more closely connected to their constituents and therefore less likely to listen to special interests.

Arguments Against Expanding the Number of House Members

Advocates for shrinking the size of the House of Representatives often argue that the quality of legislating improves because House members would get to know each other on a more personal level. They also cite the cost of paying for salaries, benefits, and travel for not only the lawmakers but their staffs.

House of Representatives

Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.

Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.

House of Representatives, one of the two houses of the bicameral United States Congress, established in 1789 by the Constitution of the United States.

Constitutional framework

The House of Representatives shares equal responsibility for lawmaking with the U.S. Senate. As conceived by the framers of the Constitution, the House was to represent the popular will, and its members were to be directly elected by the people. In contrast, members of the Senate were appointed by the states until the ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment (1913), which mandated the direct election of senators.

Each state is guaranteed at least one member of the House of Representatives. The allocation of seats is based on the population within the states, and membership is reapportioned every 10 years, following the decennial census. House members are elected for two-year terms from single-member districts of approximately equal population. The constitutional requirements for eligibility for membership of the House of Representatives are a minimum age of 25 years, U.S. citizenship for at least seven years, and residency of the state from which the member is elected, though he need not reside in the constituency that he represents.

The House of Representatives originally comprised 59 members. The number rose following the ratification of the Constitution by North Carolina and Rhode Island in 1790; the first Congress (1789–91) adjourned with 65 representatives. By 1912 membership had reached 435. Two additional representatives were added temporarily after the admission of Alaska and Hawaii as states in 1959, but at the next legislative apportionment, membership returned to 435, the number authorized by a law enacted in 1941.

Powers

The Constitution vests certain exclusive powers in the House of Representatives, including the right to initiate impeachment proceedings and to originate revenue bills. The organization and character of the House of Representatives have evolved under the influence of political parties, which provide a means of controlling proceedings and mobilizing the necessary majorities. Party leaders, such as the speaker of the House and the majority and minority leaders, play a central role in the operations of the institution. However, party discipline (i.e., the tendency of all members of a political party to vote in the same way) has not always been strong, owing to the fact that members, who must face reelection every two years, often vote the interests of their districts rather than their political party when the two diverge.

A further dominating element of House organization is the committee system, under which the membership is divided into specialized groups for purposes such as holding hearings, preparing bills for the consideration of the entire House, and regulating House procedure. Each committee is chaired by a member of the majority party. Almost all bills are first referred to a committee, and ordinarily the full House cannot act on a bill until the committee has “reported” it for floor action. There are approximately 20 standing (permanent) committees, organized mainly around major policy areas, each having staffs, budgets, and subcommittees. They may hold hearings on questions of public interest, propose legislation that has not been formally introduced as a bill or resolution, and conduct investigations. Among important standing committees are those on appropriations, on ways and means (which handles matters related to finance), and on rules. There are also select and special committees, which are usually appointed for a specific project and for a limited period.

The committees also play an important role in the control exercised by Congress over governmental agencies. Cabinet officers and other officials are frequently summoned before the committees to explain policy. The Constitution (Article I, section 6) prohibits members of Congress from holding offices in the executive branch of government—a chief distinction between parliamentary and congressional forms of government.

After the census of 1920, Northeastern and Midwestern states held 270 House seats and the South and West held 169. Thereafter, the balance between the two regions gradually shifted: following the 2010 census, the Northeast and Midwest accounted for only 172 seats, compared with the South and West’s 263. Most notably, the number of representatives from New York declined from 45 in the 1930s to only 27 in 2012, while the number from California increased from 11 to 53.

The speaker of the House of Representatives

The most significant role in the House of Representatives is that of speaker of the House. This individual, who is chosen by the majority party, presides over debate, appoints members of select and conference committees, and performs other important duties; speakers are second in the line of presidential succession (following the vice president).

The table contains a complete list of speakers of the House of Representatives.

Number of Representatives by State 2022

The United States Congress is composed of two houses: the House of Representatives and the Senate. Both houses together form the national legislature of the United States. The composition of the House is established by Article One of the Constitution. The House is in charge of passing federal legislation (bills), which are then sent to the president for consideration. Additionally, the House has several exclusive powers, such as impeaching federal officers and electing one of the top three recipients for president if no candidate receives a majority of electors.

According to the U.S. Constitution, representatives must meet the following requirements: be at least 25 years old, be a U.S. citizen for at least seven years, and be a resident of the state they represent. Additionally, all 50 states maintain requirements for running for election, including a filing fee and a petition with a minimum number of valid signatures. Members of the House of Representatives serve two-year terms and are considered for reelection every even calendar year (the next reelections will be 2022, 2024, and so on). There are a total of 435 members in the House of Representatives, 221 of which are affiliated with the Democratic Party, 211 are affiliated with the Republican Party, and three seats are vacancies.

In 1941, Congress permanently adopted the “Method of Equal Proportion” to determine how many representatives each state is apportioned. This means that each state’s number of representatives is determined by the state’s population. California has the highest number of representatives, with 53 at a population of 39,747,267. Texas is the second highest with 36 representatives and a population of 29,087,070.

How Many Congressmen are There?

There are currently 535 voting members in Congress: 435 representatives that serve in the U.S. House of Representatives and 100 senators that serve in the U.S. Senate. Every state has two senators to represent their state in the Sense. In the House of Representatives, the number of representatives a state has depends on its population. For example, Delaware and Vermont only have one representative each, while California has 53. There are six non-voting members in the U.S. House of Representatives. One is a delegate representing the District of Columbia, another is a resident commissioner for Puerto Rico, and the other four are delegates for the permanently inhabited U.S. territories; American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S Virgin Islands.

Here are the 10 states with the most representatives:

House of Representatives

The House of Representatives was born of compromise at the constitutional convention of 1787. Early during the Convention, the virginia plan, favored by the larger states, proposed a bicameral legislature in which states would be represented on the basis of wealth or population. New Jersey and other small states balked at this plan and proposed maintaining a unicameral legislature in which each state would have equal representation. The present structure of Congress was accepted as the heart of the great compromise. In the senate each state was guaranteed equal representation, while in the House, representation was to be determined by each state’s population, excluding Indians but including three-fifths of the slave population.

The compromise served dual purposes: it resolved a major conflict between the delegates, and it created one of the checks and balances within the Congress to guard against the flawed legislation that might come from a unicameral legislature. The House of Representatives was planned to reflect populist attitudes in society.

Article I, section 2, of the Constitution establishes the structure of the House. Members are chosen every second year. By law, this occurs the Tuesday after the first Monday in November in even-numbered calendar years. The frequency of elections was expected to make House members particularly responsive to shifting political climates. The Framers believed this influence would be balanced by requiring legislation to be passed by the Senate and House together. Senators are elected for six-year terms, with a third of the seats contested in each biennial election. The two-year term in the House was a compromise between those favoring annual elections and others, including james madison, who favored elections once every third year. Subsequent attempts to set House terms at four years have failed. Opponents of such plans believe that having all congressional elections coincide with presidential elections would make House candidates unduly vulnerable to the effects of coattail politics. There is no limit to the number of terms a representative or senator may serve.

The Constitution requires that representatives be chosen by «the People of the several States,» as opposed to the indirect election of the President and Vice-President by the electoral college, and the original plan called for election of senators by the state legislatures. The seventeenth amendment now requires direct election of senators. The precise method of direct election is not constitutionally determined. Until 1842, some states allowed voters to select a slate of at-large represenatives, making it possible for voters to select every representative from a given state. Congress forbade this practice, mandating the use of congressional districts—that is, equally apportioned subdivisions within the states. Each district sends one representative to the House.

Congressional districts have been the subject of continuous controversy. Districts are drawn by the state legislatures, and the political parties in control of the individual legislatures often gerrymander boundary lines, creating oddly shaped districts that benefit the fortunes of the majority party. The federal courts have been loath to intervene in these disputes, although the issue does not fall squarely into the category of the unreviewable political question, and the Supreme Court has hinted that an extreme partisan gerrymander might be unconstitutional.

The Court has been far more strict in requiring that state legislatures draw district lines to achieve population equality among the several districts within a given state. This principle, first set forth in wesberry v. sanders (1964), has been consistently reaffirmed.

Anyone who can vote in an election for «the most numerous Branch of the State Legislature» can vote for members of the House of Representatives. Early in the country’s history, voting rights were limited to white males and were often linked to property holdings. As a result, voter eligibility varied from state to state. The scope of suffrage has broadened over time, through the adoption of the fifteenth amendment (vote for former slaves), the nineteenth amendment (vote for women), the twentyfourth amendment (abolition of poll taxes), the voting rights act of 1965, and the twenty-sixth amendment (vote for all citizens eighteen or older). Indians are also now eligible to vote and are counted for purposes of apportionment.

Article I, section 2, requires that representatives be at least twenty-five years old, U.S. citizens for at least seven years, and citizens of the states they represent. Although not constitutionally required, political practice in the United States requires House members to reside in the districts they represent. This practice is not common to all national legislatures, most notably the British House of Commons.

Under Article I, section 5, the House and the Senate are the judges of the qualifications of their members, as well as the final arbiters of contested elections. On ten occasions, elected candidates have failed to meet constitutional requirements for House membership. Prior to 1969, both chambers occasionally refused to seat victorious candidates who were thought unacceptable for moral or political reasons. The Supreme Court limited Congress’s ability to make such judgments in powell v. mccormack (1969). The Court ruled that the House could not refuse to seat Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., on the basis of his being held in contempt of court. So long as an elected candidate meets the constitutional requirements of age, citizenship, and residence, the member’s chamber must seat him or her, although members may be censured or expelled for violating internal chamber rules. Article I grants each chamber of Congress the power to establish and enforce internal rules.

The number of House seats allotted to each state is determined by the decennial census. Article I, section 2, paragraph 3, sets forth the original apportionment scheme. The apportioning mechanism remains, but the size of the House has increased with the growth of the country. The House was initially designed to seat 65 members, each representing not less than 30,000 countable constituents. During the twentieth century, allowing the maximum membership under the Constitution would have produced an unwieldly body of several thousand members, Congress has permanently capped the size of the House at 435 voting members. In the 1980s, members from all but the smallest states represented an average of approximately 520,000 constituents.

When a vacancy occurs in the House of Representatives because of death or other circumstances, the governor of the state with the vacant seat calls a special election. Vacant Senate seats are filled by gubernatorial appointment. The special-election requirement reaffirms the constitutional principle that representatives are the elected national officals most directly tied to their constituents. In practice, when vacancies occur in the second year of a congressional term, seats often remain vacant until the next general election.

Article I, section 2, paragraph 5, provides for the election of the Speaker of the House and other officers. The Speaker is actually chosen by the majority-party caucus and then formally elected by the House. House rules dictate the specific functions of the Speaker and other officers, and by Act of Congress the Speaker is second in the line of presidential succession, behind the Vice-President. The Speaker is not constitutionally required to be a member of the House, although political practice has limited the Speaker’s office to senior House members from the majority party.

Few specific powers are granted exclusively to the House of Representatives. In the event that no presidential candidate receives a majority of Electoral College votes, representatives, voting in state delegations with one vote per state, choose the President from among the three candidates with the greatest number of electoral votes. This process, set forth in Article II, section 1, and modified by the twelfth amendment, has been used only following the elections of 1800 and 1824.

The House has the sole constitutional power to impeach officers of the United States. When impeaching a federal officer, the House brings formal charges of high crimes or misdemeanors against the accused. Following a vote to impeach by the House, the Senate may vote to convict the officer by a two-thirds majority. The House has impeached only one President, andrew johnson, in 1868. The Senate failed to convict him by a single vote. A dozen federal judges have been formally impeached, and four convicted. In July 1974 the House Committee on the Judiciary initiated impeachment hearings against President richard m. nixon and recommended his impeachment on three counts. Nixon resigned following his court-ordered release of the Watergate tapes, and the House dropped its proceedings.

The final power held exclusively by the House is the «power of the purse.» The Constitution requires that all bills to raise federal revenues originate in the House. The larger states at the Constitutional Convention insisted on linking taxation and representation, believing that the direct and frequent election of the representatives would cause them to proceed with caution in proposing tax measures. In fact, the Senate can propose revenue measures through the process of amending bills from the House. The adoption of the Seventeenth Amendment has diluted much of the original concern regarding taxation and direct representation.

Robert F. S.J. Drinan
(1992)

Bibliography

Congressional Quarterly 1982 Powers of Congress, 2nd ed. Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly.

Corwin, Edward Samuel 1985 Corwin and Peltason’s Understanding the Constitution, 10th ed. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.

Galloway, George B. 1976 History of the House of Representatives, 2nd ed. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell.

Hinckley, Barbara 1987 Stability and Change in Congress, 4th ed. San Francisco: Harper & Row.

How many members of the house of representatives are there

The United States Congress is what is known as a “bicameral institution,” meaning there are two houses, namely the Senate and the House of Representatives, that comprise it. In this article, we will discuss what the differences between them are.

Definitions

Getty Images/AFP/MANDEL NGAN

The United States Senate is an “upper house” in the United States Congress.

The history of the Senate goes back to 1787, when William Paterson at the Constitutional Convention proposed the New Jersey plan, which constituted the structure of the United States Government. The plan was initially based on the principle of equality, and later would become a foundation of the United States Senate. Originally senators were chosen by the state legislators, which meant they were largely representatives of the state’s elite class. That changed in 1913 with the 17 th amendment, and since then senators have been elected by the people just like representatives. The Senate was formed on the example of the ancient Roman Senate. The name refers to the Latin term senatus, meaning council of elders.

Getty Images/Getty Images News/Brendan Hoffman

The history of the House of Representatives goes to back to the Virginia plan envisioned by Edmund Jennings Randolph, the first United States Attorney General. He came up with the idea of a bicameral legislature and the House as the Lower House represented the people as far as all American Constitution issues were concerned. In the beginning, the House of Representatives was the only body in the Congress that was elected. It essentially represented what is it that people want, even before the President, let alone the Senate.

Every state in the United States of America sends its representatives to the House. The more populous the state, the more representatives it has (for example, Alaska and Vermont each have only one representative, while California has 52).

Senate vs House of Representatives

What is the difference between the Senate and the House of Representatives?

1) The Senate with its 100 members is smaller, compared to the House of Representatives, which has 435 members. One of the consequences of this arrangement is that the Senate has more flexibility in their rules. In the Senate, there is such a thing as a “filibuster,” which means that if the senator has a podium, he can talk as long as he wishes. One of the consequences of the filibuster is that a minority can rule the Senate. In The House of Representatives, on the other hand, there are structured rules on what members can talk about, and how long they can talk, because there are many more members in the House, and things have to proceed more quickly in order to be done at all.

2) The constitutional requirements for the senators and the house members are different.

For the House of Representatives:

Getty Images/Moment/Richard Sharrocks

3) An individual member of the Senate has the opportunity to change the course of events, while an individual member of the House of Representatives doesn’t. If you are a member of the House of Representatives, and happen to be in a minority part, regardless of being Republican or Democrat, you at a disadvantage, because the majority in the House of Representatives controls everything. In the Senate, on the other hand, the power is given to an individual senator. So even if the given senator belongs to the minority, he can play a major role.

In the Senate, there is such a thing as “unanimous consent,” meaning that every senator has to agree on the given issue in order to move forward with approving it. Even if only one senator doesn’t agree, he can object to the legislation or whatever is in question.

Getty Images/Getty Images News/Brendan Hoffman

5) A party can theoretically win the majority in the House of Representatives in one election cycle. For example, the Republican Party did it in 2010, as did the Democratic Party in 2006. On the other hand, in order to gain the majority in the Senate, it takes several election cycles.

6) As far as economy-connected decisions are concerned, all revenue bills, or any bills that deal with money must originate in the House of Representatives. The Senate considers the bills, its members are able to promote amendments regarding them, but they cannot make a final decision.

7) The U.S. President can nominate people to office, but they gain it only with the subsequent approval of the majority of the Senate. The House of Representatives, on the other hand, has no role in nominating candidates whatsoever.

8) In terms of foreign treaties and regulations, such as those connected to wars, etc., it is up to the Senate majority to decide whether to ratify them or not. The House of Representatives, on the other hand, doesn’t have a say in these matters.

9) The House of Representatives has the power to impeach an elected official. The Senate, on the other hand, doesn’t have this power.